Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-03-11

surging sorrow cannot sink a soul that has
asked for Gods pilotage. The difficulty is
that when we have misfortunes of any
kind we put them in Gods hand, and they
stay there a little while; and then We
go and get them again, and bring
them back. A vessel comes in from
a foreign port. AS it comes near the
harbor it sees q pilot floating about. L
halls the pilot. The pilot comes on board
and he says: "Now, Captain, you have had
a stormy passage. Go down and sleep
York harbor." After awhile the Captain
says: Am l right in trusting this vessel tc
that pilot? l guess I'll go up and see.
| So he comes to the pilot and says: aDont
you see that rock9 Don't you see those
headlands? You will wreck the ship. Let
me lay hold of the helm awhile for myself.
and then I'll trust to you The pilot be.
comes angry, and says: Il will either take
care Of this ship or not. Ii you want to, ]
will get into my yawl and go ashore. o,
back to my boat" Now We say to the
Lord: 20, God, take my life, take my all
in Thy keeping! Be Thou my guide; be
Thou my pilot" We go along for a little
while, and suddenly wake up and say:
sThings are all going wrong. o, Lord,
we are driving on these rocks, and Thou
art going to let us be shipwrecked." God
says, "You go and rest. l will take
charge of this vessel and take it into
the harbor. 1t is Gods business to com
fort, and it is our business to be com
forted. Herbert, the great thinker, phil.
osophized about himself, philosophical
about this world, philosophical about ev.
erything, then in his dying moments asked
that only one word might be cut upon his
tombstone, and that word "Infelicissimus"
most unhappy-descrip tive of the state
take their case out of the hand of Goa.
The only appropriate inscription for their
b%anqueting hall, and their equipage, and
their grave, and the wall of their eternal
prison Observation-Disclosures" In drool-
ing, moral idiocy, they are scrabbling at
the door of their happiness, which never
opens, miserably playing the fool.
Again: I remark that all those persons
played the fool, as certainly did this man
of the text, who allow the technicalities of
religion to stop their salvation. David
was wise about a great many things, but
his cuttings-up in the text for a little while
eclipsed his character. And I know wise
men and great men, competent for all
other stations, who are acting a silly
and foolish part in regard to the techni-
%calities of religion. They ask us some
questions which w cannot answer cate
gorically, and SO they burst into o broad
guttaw, as though it is Of any more inter-
est to us than it ought to be to them.
About the atonement, about Gods DEGREES,
about mans destiny, they ask a great many
questions which we cannot answer, and SO
they deride us, as though we could not ask
them o thousand questions that they can
not answer, about their eyes, about their
ears. about their finger nails, about every
thing. A fool can ask o question that a
wise man cannot answer. Oh, you cavil-
ing men! Oh, you profound men! Oh,
you learned men, do please admit some-
thing. You have a soul? Yes. Will it
live forever? Yes. Where? You say
that Jesus Christ is not a Divine Saviour.
Who is he? Where will you go after you
leave your law books and your medical
prescriptions, and your club-room, and
to? Your body will be six feet under
ground. Where will four soul be? The
black coat will be of, the shroud on.
Those spectacles will be removed from
your vision, for the sod will press your eye
lids. Have you any idea that an earthly
almanic describes the years of your life
time? OF what stuff shall I gather the ma
terial for the letters of that word which
describes your eternal home? Shall it be
iron chain or amaranthine garland? The
air that stirs the besweated locks of your
dying pillow will it come off q garden or
a desert? o. quit the puzzling questions
and try these momentous questions. Quit
the small questions and try these great
questions. Instead of discussing whether
the serpent in Eden was fgurative or literal,
whether the Mediterranean fish did or did
not swallow the recreant prophet, whether
this and that, and the other thing is right
or wrong, come and discuss one question,
"How shall I get rid of my sins and win
h%eaven?" That is the question for you.
Yea, there have been men who have actu-
ally lost their souls because they thought
there was o discrepancy between Moses
and Professor Silliman-because they could
not understand how there could be light
before the sun rose-the light appearing in
ing not until verse sixteen-and because
they do not know how the moon could stand
still without upsetting the universe, and
because they had decided upon the theory
of natural selection. A German phil
osopher in dying had for his chief sorrow
that he had not devoted his whole life to
the study of the native case. Oh, when
your Immortality is in peril, why bubble?
Quit these non-essentials, my dear brother.
In the name of God, l ask you in regard to
these matters of the immortal soul, that YOU
do not play the fool.
What is that man doing over in Bowling
Green, New York? Well, he is going in
for a ticket for a transatlantic voyage. He
is quarreling with the clerk about the spots
the red spots on the ticket-and he ia
quarre'ing about the peculiar signature of
the President of the steamship company,
and he is quarreling about the manner Of
the clerk who hands him the ticket. How
long has he been standing there? Three
weeks. Meanwhile perhaps twenty steam
ers have gone out of port, and l hear the
shrek of the steam tug that could take him
to the last vessel that could bear him to
his engagement in London. Still he stands
in Bowling Green discussing the ticket.
What do you say in regard to that man?
You say he is a fool. Well in that very
way IRE many men acting in regard to many
matters of the soul. They are caviling
about the atonement, the red spots on the
ticket, about the character Of the minister
who hands them the ticket-about whether
it has n divine or human signature, and
meanwhile, all their opportunities for
heaven are sailing III of the harbor, and I
hear the last tap of the bell announcing
their last chance for heaven. Go aboard!
Do not waste any more time in higgling and
carping, and criticising, and wondering.
and, in the presence of al astounded
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